Barbara Zechmeister

Soprano

In 2011 the title of Kammersängerin was bestowed upon Barbara Zechmeister, who has been singing at Oper Frankfurt since 1996. During the 2014/15 season she sings one of the Sirens in the world premiere of Rolf Riehm's Sirenen – Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens/Sirens – Scenes of Desire and Destruction, Gertrud (the mother) in a new production of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Mrs. Coyle in Britten's Owen Wingrave, the Old Woman in the first ever performances in Frankfurt of Mieczysław Weinberg's Die Passagierin/The (female) Passenger and Marianne Leitmetzerin in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier. Roles for the company last season included the Young Woman/Das Fräulein in a new production of Reimann's Die Gespenstersonate/Ghost Sonata, Despina in Così fan tutte and Europa in concert performances of Strauss Die Liebe der Danae/The Love of Danae. Roles in recent seasons have included Angelo Custode / Eco (Cavalieri's Das Spiel von Seele und Körper), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Emma (Khowanshchina), the Countess (Die Hochzeit des Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Musetta and Mimì (La Bohème), Freia (Das Rheingold; available on DVD and CD/OehmsClassics), Marguerite (Gounod's Faust), Marie (Die verkaufte Braut/The Bartered Bride), Lady Macduff (Bloch's Macbeth), Donna Clara (Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg/The Dwarf), Grigori Frid's Anne Frank, Miss Jessel (Britten's The Turn of the Screw), Salud (de Falla's Das kurze Leben/La vida breve), the Sister (Sallinen's Kullervo) and Livia in the world premiere of Glanert's Caligula. Places where Barbara Zechmeister has appeared as a guest artist have included Mannheim, Hannover, Stuttgart, Essen, Rouen, Lisbon, the Wexford Festival and she sang 1st Lady in a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the 2013 Bregenz Festival.